Last Week of April 2021

 Hello Families. I cannot believe we are headed into the last week of April, and the last six weeks of the school year. We are accomplishing so much, with so much still to do. Check out what we are doing in our rooms recently:

Math:  Last week we started our unit on Geometry. We looked at attributes of 2 dimensional shapes. This week we will look at 3 dimensional shapes and composite shapes. 

ELA:  This is our final week of our NatGeo U7 Then and Now. There are only 8 units in our curriculum. This weeks spelling sounds air, are, and ear words.

Social Studies:  Last week as part of our Then and Now unit we did a mini inventors unit. This week we will wrap up both inventors and then and now with a look at the telephone and discuss who really invented it, and how it has changed over the years. This will also lead us into our science unit on sound.

Science:  We will be kicking off our sound unit this week, exploring our big question "What Causes Sound?" The kids will be making their hypothesis and doing a bunch of hands on experiments to discover how sounds are made. So much fun ahead. 

iPad Charging Cords and Blocks:  As you know we are now keeping all iPads at school in our classroom iPad carts. In order for your child's iPad to be charged we need their district issued charging cord and block to also be returned. We have discovered that we can actually tell if we are not given the charging block that came with your childs iPad because it will not fit correctly in the iPad cart, which means it will not sit in there properly to charge. Who knew? We have iPads, however we are missing a large chunk of chargers and blocks, especially from our Avengers side. Please take time to locate and return to us ASAP. Thank you.

Spirit Week:  Next week is spirit week. Below is the flyer telling what each day is. 

Cannot wait to see all the kiddos in their pj's tomorrow. Please remember, they still need to wear shoes for recess time. Looking forward to our busy but fun week ahead! -Ms. Shaw 

Mid April Updates

 Hello families. I wanted to touch base with 3 important updates for our class, please read carefully.

We are moving:  At least half of us are. Room 9 is moving across the hall to room 10 for the remainder of the school year. This is creating the opportunity for us to be right next door to the other half of our class in room 8. The super exciting part of this is that there are double doors that connect the two rooms that we will now have open, allowing Mrs. Burton access to act as the lead sub-aide/co-teacher in the two rooms. The kiddos in room 8 (who now are going by the name Avengers) and the kiddos in room 10 (who are now the Autobots) will remain on their separate sides, and Ms. Hoffman will also remain solely in room 8. This is a unique and exciting opportunity that we are confident will help us utilize Mrs. Burton's natural teaching knowledge to reach our full range of students and increase consistent ecpectations across the two classes with the continued support of Ms. Hoffman on the one side. We let both kids know about the move on Friday and they are all excited. Mrs. Burton and I worked this Saturday to set our new room up as well as get ready for some new friends, and we are ready to assemble and roll out!

iPads:  We will now be storing your child's iPads at school. Starting tomorrow we need you to send your child to school with their fully charged iPad, their district issued charging cord and their iPad block. Just a heads up that they will not return home with them, we will be storing and charging them in the classroom from now on. 

Picture Day:  Pictures are a little different this year. They will be done digitally, from my understanding. Here is the link to the information. Picture Day Info. If you have any questions I would suggest contacting the office.

4 day week ahead, and some positive changes. Thank you all for your continued support as we continue to pivot. If you ever have any questions please feel free to reach out to me. 💜-Ms. Shaw

Happy Sunday families. Hope you all are loving this weather as much as I am. I hope it stays just like this through August, I know it won't but this temp sure is ideal. Throw in a summer monsoon storm and I would have the perfect day. Anyway, it sure is perfect for opening some windows in the classroom and getting outside. JT from Terra Birds has been in touch and we are trying to work out a schedule to get into the garden soon! Will let you know when that happens. Until then, here is what is happening in our rooms...

Math:  We will finish our unit on tens and ones this week. The kids learned how to draw quick tens on Friday and we will use them to help us identify 1 and 10 more and less than a two digit number. At the end of the week we will begin our unit on comparing two-digit numbers with > , <, and = signs. 

ELA:  We finished reading our Twister on Tuesday last week. We will wrap it up on Monday with a comprehension test. We will also begin our 7th Nat Geo Unit on Then and Now, which we will tie in with our social studies unit. 

Last week we practiced taking our spelling tests in person and on Nearpod. The practice was to see how it worked, and will not count as a grade. This week will be the real deal. However, I realized that part of the issue with not sending home spelling words and having them do spelling words only in class is that this eliminates the opportunity to study the words at home. Therefore I will be sending home a copy of the spelling words with the kids at the beginning of each week (this weeks words will go home on Tuesday instead on Monday due to some behind the scenes errors). This list is up to you to use how you see best for your child. We will still be writing the words everyday in class. If you feel they should do this at home as well, then go for it. If you want to use it as practice tests, then you can use it that way. If you would like for it just to be a study guide for Friday's tests, that is fine as well. I just want to make sure there was a hard copy for you all to have for the sake of studying before Friday.

Social Studies:  We will be comparing and contrasting life long ago and life today, looking at schools, homes, communication, entertainment, and transportation. We will be researching and writing all about these 5 areas in our own little books.

iPad Apps:  Please remember that these iPads are not for personal use, they were issued for school purposes and must be used as such. The only apps that should be downloaded are those that have been requested by your child's teacher this year. The kids may not be downloading games or you tube from the app store, as these are not needed for school use. The are taking up storage space, but even more concerning are the kids are trying to get on the apps and play with them during school time. We cannot go in and delete individual apps, our media specialist has to do a reset on the whole iPad, which wipes everything clean. Then we have to download everything we do want, which means Zoom, Google Classroom, etc....again. This is quite the process. If we are at a point where we are wiping your child's iPad and they return with games downloaded, and they are playing on those games during class time we may opt to just reset again and keep your child's iPad at school instead of sending it home. Here are the only apps we need downloaded at this point:

• Zoom
• Google Classroom
• Razz Kids (Kids A-Z)
• Lexia
• Dreambox (Both, apparently)
• Nearpod
• Some may have Google Slides and Zearn and Nat Geo (Reach for Reading)  - those are fine

Please note I will never ask them to download any type of game, and these things should not be put on there from home. Thank you for your understanding.

Tutoring at the FRC:  The FRC is once again offering free tutoring at the Family Resource Center. They are offering reading and math support for all grades. They are half hour slots and parents must transport their students.  Parents can register at https://fusd1.ce.eleyo.com/.

Short and sweet this week! Have a great rest of the week. -Ms. Shaw